Just sharing my opinion, so bear with me. Before anyone says, yes I can afford it.
My experience with GW2: Late comer. HoT: Late comer. Overall experience of GW2: unpopulated maps.
I’ve never liked map instances – I’ve always had negative experiences with it and always thought it was a bad idea. Some times there are busy maps but often times, even during weekend or so-called peak-times, I end up on a largely unpopulated map with no ability to pick for myself what map instance I want to go to. If LFG isn’t used (and it’s mostly barren for what I want) then you have no way of switching, UNLESS the game detects that the map is empty and asks you if you would like to switch. Sadly it appears that detection either sucks or doesn’t take into account AFKers and botters.
Understandably much of the early game content is lacking in players. Dungeons from years back have been pretty dead for a long time, but I find it most disappointing that much of HoT is unpopulated.
I’ve done everything everyone has ever suggested: Peak times, weekends, LFG. There comes a point where there is TOO much reliance on other people to complete content and not many people want to help others out. Map instances split a potentially huge number of players, a ridiculous amount and if you happen to be on a UNPOPULATED map, then you’re not going to have much fun (especially if you’re at the mercy of the horrible map population detector) – contrary to what the server population indicator says.
My dilemma, since I’ve embraced the differences of GW2 as a MMO different from others, is that while I understand it is a glorified collection game and has much to do in that regard, is that much of it cannot be obtained without other people and due to instances, it is a huge block on newcomers to the game or those going back to earlier content to achieve and collect such things. I am one of those people who went back to go collect earlier gear and most of the experience has been horrible. Do I abandon early core GW2 content and HoT and jump straight to Path of Fire when it first releases because a lack of popularity on older content makes it harder for me to find someone to play such content? Do I then return to HoT later, only to find it double dead because even more time has passed? OR do I stick with HoT and hope the few people (thanks to instances and a crummy LFG system) still playing HoT content are around on my map or using LFG so I can actually complete stuff, only to go to Path of Fire content way way down the line and HOPE that it hasn’t become barren like much of the core content and HoT? Breathes
Now I understand a lot of people love GW2 and may not have had the problems I have had, but it does occur. I’ve spoken to many people in game who agree that instances are to blame and I’ve been on the end of failed events countless times because of a lack of players. I specifically remember one time a couple months ago when my map in Silverwastes was mostly empty, so I used LFG only to join a Bandit Chest train map that had LOTS of people in a squad, but of course none of which were defending the fortresses – little example of a big problem.
I know having everyone in the same map (like traditional MMOs) is not a good way of approaching this issue, but there must be a better way of addressing dead content. Is the map number simply too small? Having tiny numbers of players per map, which is then filled with higher levels not interested in aged content is not going to help when there are people looking for help.
I don’t want to buy Path of Fire unless I know that crap map populations aren’t going to be a problem a couple of years down the line. Yeah… a couple of years. Remember not everybody gets the content and plays it right away or at a rate that gets them so far so quickly. I’m still doing SW stuff and I’ve had HoT a few months (and though HoT has been out a while, there are tons of unpopulated areas).
There’s a lot of people playing GW2 and it sucks so much that map instances are the sole reason for limiting player experience – especially those who are trying to get the most out of earlier content before moving on to the later stuff.
The only time I’ve not seen a lack of population, is with dailies. Perhaps this can be expanded on in future? There needs to be more incentive to return to varying areas in GW2.
Please do not confuse this rambling as me saying GW2 sucks, because I didn’t say or imply it. I’m merely expressing my view and my experience of player population on certain maps and content (especially with collections). I like the game, a lot and wished I’d joined it when it first released, but sadly that was not the case.
(Edit for grammar and clarity)
(edited by Holgarf.6581)
